Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to Become Musical Show

NEW YORK (Reuters) Michael Jackson will help develop his ground-breaking "Thriller" video into a musical theater production, producers said on Monday.

Jackson's 1982 "Thriller" album is the world's biggest selling album and the theater production will recreate the tale of the 14-minute horror film spoof based on the title song. In the video, a young couple are on a date when the boy -- played by Jackson in the video -- becomes a werewolf.

"This musical will be the exclusive Michael Jackson authorized version of 'Thriller' and Jackson will participate in every aspect of the creative process," said the Nederland Organization, which has acquired the rights to the musical.

"Thriller The Musical" will include songs from "Thriller" and Jackson's 1979 album "Off The Wall."

The "Thriller" video, featuring dancing zombies and horror film star Vincent Price, was first aired in 1983 and became a staple of MTV. It was directed by filmmaker John Landis, who said it cost $500,000 -- about 10 times the cost of the standard music video of the time.

Jackson's spokesman, Dr. Tohme Tohme, said in the Nederland Organization statement: "The Nederlanders and Michael Jackson represent live theater and musical excellence, so let the music begin."

Jackson, 50, is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time and began his musical career with his siblings in the Motown group the Jackson 5 before starting a solo career.

But the singer has been dogged since the 1990s by scandal and revelations about his eccentric lifestyle. He was tried and acquitted of child sex abuse charges in 2005.

Jackson also has been plagued with financial troubles in the past few years and narrowly averted a foreclosure sale of his Neverland Ranch in May. In November, he handed over the title of Neverland to a company made up of himself and the firm that holds the $24 million loan on the property.

great idea!


oh wait, it's not 1985?

well then I take it back

DakutiusMaximus said:

Coming in 2025 then, can we just have a new album please.

How will they stretch the concept into a 90 - 120 minute musical?

Thriller, Thriller, THRILLER! Why does he continue to milk this cow!?

Well I won't be shelling out around $100 to see that shit. Nah Mikey, that's not happening.

Lord help us!

Ohh larwd.....

um no, just well .....HELL NO!!

* goes to corner and sits down, rocks back and forth*
and says: "Find a happy place, find a happy place"

Like it's actually gonna happen

I would be happy for him if it'd be a success. But this also means that he has no time for making the new album.

Wouldn't watch it even if it was free. I think it's just a way of showing others MJ is still relevant.
b!tch puhleseee!

namepeace said:

I still wonder why it took 26 years to do this...

I would go see it, but seriously, why can't he just use songs from his whole catalogue? Everyone already knows off the wall and thriller

alphastreet said:

That just proves the media's slant point that Michael peaked after "Thriller". Hell many of Michael's post-Bad joints weren't even represented on "Thriller Live". What gives?

alphastreet said:

Because there's already a show like that. It's called Thriller Live. :p

Mike needs $.

John Landis Not At All Thrilled with Michael Jackson

"Thriller" director John Landis is suing still-sorta-iconic pop singer Michael Jackson for breach of contract, saying that he hasn't been paid for his share of the "Thriller" video for at least the last four years. When the clip was signed in 1983, Landis and Jackson brokered a deal that said the director would get 50% of the net profits from the video and its related documentary, and that he would also receive regular updates on the video's revenues. Landis' suit, which accuses "fraudulent, malicious and oppressive conduct" on the part of Jackson and his people, says that Jackson's been breaching that agreement since at least 2005.

Landis's attorney, Miles Feldman of Liner Yankelevitz Sunshine & Regenstreif, said it was the closest thing he could imagine to an open and shut case. "I can't understand what they are doing to John Landis' company. It is such a straight ahead thing," Feldman said. "It makes no sense at all to me."

The contract includes rights to dramatic and musical works, but the extent to which any show is based on the video, as opposed to Jackson's music, may be open to interpretation — or negotiation.

The case could be the latest in a long string of legal embarrassments for Jackson. In addition to the Landis suit, he is believed to have recently concluded private arbitration with representatives of the Sultan of Brunei over a contract believed to involve Jackson agreeing to perform and offer a percentage of rights to future projects in exchange for payment of several million dollars.

The Landis suit probably does not involve a huge amount of money – the complaint does not assert a dollar figure, but the debt is not believed to be more than about $1 million, even taking into account last year's successful 25th anniversary re-issue of the Thriller album and the new-found popularity of the video on YouTube.

The complaint, which was filed by Landis last week, hasn't yet been answered by an attorney, although Los Angeles doctor Tohme Tohme, who has declared himself the singer's "official and sole spokesperson," apparently arranged a powwow with some other Jackson advisers to discuss the lawsuit and other pressing matters, like the Jacko jukebox musical that's apparently made its way past the "vaguely planned" stages.

http://idolator.com/51405...el-jackson

^^^ What's up with Michael and his bills?

JackieBlue said:

Beats me. Someone said that John must've been waiting until Michael got that financial mess half straighten out, lol. Michael had to close down a lot of companies recently because they were defunct for years.

I know this seems crazy, but it could work. Theres a whole new generation of fans, not to mention a host of die-hards out there who could possibly buy into this, I think the promotion will be the key, if this is promoted right, it has the potential to do good.

mrpunkfunk said:

It's a good investment.

Wow, that's like taking "Purple Rain" to Broadway. like Prince would really let that fly. This Thriller thing isn't going to happen for real...with Michael on board, he's going to be very picky about every fucking thing.

Michael: "Ahh no, CUT CUT! Where did u guys get this non-dancing heffer?!? He's isn't doing the Moonwalk with enough precision. Let me show u how it needs to be done...somebody hold my cane."

Michael: "Ahh no, CUT CUT!!! Where did u get this awful hair stylist from?!? There needs to be more activator on the jheri curl wigs!!! Sha'mon people, let's get it together!!!"

Michael: "Ahh no, CUT CUT!!! Gotdammit! Can't somebody do the shoulder action with sharp intensity?!? Somebody hold my cane again...now this time watch carefully and follow my lead. I'm starting to feel like maybe I'm the one who should starr in this production since you hooligans can't seem to get it right."

missfee said:

missfee said:

If he has final say, forget about it. It's best they keep him in the dark. I still want to know what they're going to use to fill up a Broadway's play worth of time.

JackieBlue said:

"Off the Wall" and "Thriller" have 19 songs combined between the two of them, lol.

Timmy84 said:

But like is there a storyline aside from Thriller or is going to be one of those musicals where they just play a record and people dance to it? I thought there would be a story and they'd incorporate the songs into it. Didn't Billie Joel have something like that?

Isn't there already another MJ musical going on right now? I think we had a thread about it recently.

SoulAlive said:

That one's being done by some fans. The person who's involved with that one is a guy from London named Adrian Grant who's really respected in the MJ fan community. He started one of the best fanzines back in the 80s-90s, wrote a book called "The Visual Documentary" that was officially approved by Michael, he also was the one who got the first preview of Dangerous back in 1990 and has heard a couple of unreleased tracks that didn't make the album